SENIOR BRITISH police officers conceded last night that no one will be brought to justice for the July 7th bombs that killed 52 people in London in 2005, despite their belief that more than 20 people were involved in the attacks.
The admission came shortly after the only three men to be charged in connection with the suicide bombings were acquitted yesterday. After a £100 million (€112 million) criminal investigation, the biggest police inquiry in modern times in the UK, the trio were cleared by a jury at Kingston crown court, southwest London, of helping to plan the attacks by carrying out a reconnaissance mission with two of the bombers.
The men, Waheed Ali (25), Mohammed Shakil (32) and Sadeer Saleem (28), had already been tried once last year, when a jury failed to reach a verdict.
Peter Clarke, former head of the Metropolitan police’s anti-terrorism branch, who led the inquiry until his retirement last year, said: “Every possible line had been followed and there didn’t seem to be any fresh new lines. The core of the investigation was the people that were in court over the last few weeks.”
The three men acquitted yesterday became “persons of interest” when officers discovered their DNA and fingerprints linking them to the two bomb factories in Leeds. Detectives first realised they had been to London with bombers Hasib Hussain and Germaine Lindsay while scrutinising the details of 4,700 phone numbers and 90,000 calls.
Cell site analysis, pinpointing the location of a mobile phone when a call is made, revealed that all five men had been in the capital on December 16th-17th.
But during the trial they insisted they had been on an innocent sightseeing trip, visiting the London Eye, the London Aquarium and the Natural History Museum, and were ideologically opposed to suicide bombings. No CCTV of the visit remained.
Several sets of fingerprints found at the bomb factories have never been identified.
The verdict opens the way for fresh and highly damaging disclosures by the parliamentary intelligence and security committee (ISC) about how MI5 and West Yorkshire police missed opportunities to follow – and possibly stop – two of the July 7th suicide bombers. A report by the ISC, which reportedly describes in detail how MI5 and West Yorkshire police failed to intercept the attackers, was withheld in case it prejudiced the trial but will be released next month. Campaigners said it had been described to them as “devastating”.
Robert Webb, whose 29-year-old sister Laura died in the Edgware Road bombing, said: “The trial . . . raises again the awful question of whether the bombings could have been prevented.”
Sadeer Saleem spoke outside court to say he was “totally innocent” yesterday. “I have lost over two years of my life which I will never get back,” he said.
The jury convicted Ali and Shakil of planning to attend a terrorist training camp, charges which were added at the retrial. They were arrested on their way to Manchester airport for a flight to Pakistan in March 2007. – (Guardian service)